1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to recording/reproduction apparatuses, systems and programs.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, in digital television broadcasting, BS (Broadcasting Satellite) digital television broadcasting using broadcasting satellites and CS (Communication Satellite) digital television broadcasting using communication satellites have diffused. Digital terrestrial television broadcasting has started from December 2003 in Japan and the broadcasting is in a stage of transition from the analog terrestrial television broadcasting to the digital terrestrial television broadcasting. The terrestrial digital television broadcasting employs an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) system as a modulation system, thereby sending a plurality of radio waves (more specifically, of video and voice signals, and a data broadcast) in a multiplexed manner.
It is known that an electronic program guide is displayed using a data broadcast included in the digital television broadcasting. A user can view the electronic program guide while reserving video recording readily. The user can beforehand register desired keywords such that a program including the desired keywords is automatically selected from the electronic program guide, thereby recording videos (for example, see Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application 2001-326925). Recently, recording/reproduction apparatuses of a large capacity that use a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk)-RAM according to the DVD standards and a hard disk are sold, thereby allowing the user to record videos readily without worrying about the remaining recording time.
When the viewer readily records a program based on an electronic program guide or a program involving keywords is automatically recorded, the storage unit of the recording/reproduction apparatus would end up recording many programs. Especially, a recording/reproduction apparatus that includes a built-in large-capacity memory such as a hard disk by itself is capable of recording programs for several hundred hours, so that it often occurs that the recording/reproduction apparatus ends up having recorded and stored many programs already when the viewer finds this fact.
When the viewer views a recorded program actually, a physical time is required. For example, if a 10-hour program is recorded, it would take 10 hours for the viewer to view the whole program. Thus, the viewer cannot view the whole recorded program due to restriction by time and cannot help deleting some programs for the purpose of recording new programs.
Especially, in the case of sports program relay such as a professional-baseball relay program or a soccer relay program, there are demands that the viewers wish to mainly and efficiently view highlighted scenes as high points in the program such as a scene in which a batter hit a home run or a scene in which a soccer player shot the ball without viewing the whole scene. Even in a song program there is the demand that a viewer wishes to view only scenes in which, for example, his or her favorite singer is singing.
While the use of techniques for double-speed reproduction and/or fast forwarding of videos is known, these techniques are only for reducing the time required for viewing the whole video. As a result, the viewer cannot help viewing the whole program inefficiently.
In this respect, a recording/reproduction apparatus is known that records a digital broadcast program and reproduces it at an automatically changing speed. For example, Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application 2002-016858 discloses a digital broadcasting receiver that dynamically controls the speed of reproducing a recorded program in accordance with the reproduced voice level. In this device, the scene is reproduced at low speed when the voice level is high whereas it is reproduced at a normal speed when the voice level is low or it is reproduced at the normal speed when the voice level is high and reproduced at high speed when the voice level is low.
However, a degree of importance of each of the scenes included in the program does not necessarily coincide with its voice level. As with the digital broadcasting receiver disclosed in the publication 2002-016858, changing the reproduction speed in accordance with the voice level is effective in the reproduction of a sports relay program for a scene, for example scoring points, because the voice level increases due to a cheer from the spectators at the scene. However, the scene in which the voice level is high is not necessarily the “scoring” scene. Accordingly, this system is not necessarily effective to apply to other programs. An “important” scene in a program varies from viewer to viewer.